Chinese Christians seeking asylum in Thailand fear repercussions if they’re deported to China

Members of a Chinese Christian church seeking asylum in Thailand fear they will be jailed if they are deported back to China.

Thai immigration officials yesterday detained 63 members of the Mayflower Church, a Chinese Christian church seeking asylum in Thailand. The group, including men, women, and children, had been attempting to relocate to the United States since August of the previous year. However, their attempts were unsuccessful, and they applied for refugee status at Bangkok’s UN refugee office.

The Mayflower church members left China in 2019 due to religious restrictions and initially attempted to seek asylum in South Korea. However, they were unable to find refuge there and eventually came to Thailand, reported Christianity Today. Human rights organizations are concerned that if the group is deported back to China, they could face imprisonment.

Bob Fu, head of ChinaAid, reported that one member of the Mayflower Church had been coerced into revealing the group’s location by Chinese state security. The congregation confronted the member when they noticed that he had been acting strangely. Chinese operatives then escorted the member away, leaving his wife and daughter behind, and he has not been seen since.

Pastor Pan Yongguang and his group went into hiding for a few days before returning to their hotel but soon after about 20 Thai immigration police arrived at the hotel and requested to see their passports and visas, which had already expired in October. The police then took the group to an immigration centre located 30 minutes away, where they were interrogated by officials.

As night approached, officials deliberated whether to transfer the group to Bangkok’s Immigration Detention Center, infamous for its unsanitary conditions. Eventually, they decided to transfer them to a nearby police station instead. The women and children were sleeping on the floor, which worried Deanna Brown, a member of Freedom Seekers International, an NGO that assists persecuted Christians. Brown had just arrived that morning to assist the Mayflower Church members when the police showed up. Some of the police officers were taking photos and videos while they were being interrogated.

During the interrogation, Pastor Pan Yongguang and other church members were questioned by the officials. The group spent the night at the police station because they were apprehensive about signing forms that could lead to their deportation back to China.

The immigration hearings for Pastor Pan Yongguang and his congregants began on Friday. If the group is returned to China, they will likely face retaliation, abuse, and imprisonment for speaking out about religious persecution. Abraham Cooper, vice-chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, has urged the US government to utilize all feasible tools at its disposal to ensure the safety of the Mayflower Church members.

Top US officials have been briefed on the situation, and lawmakers have been contacting the Thai embassy, urging them not to send the Christians back to China. ChinaAid and other groups have been calling on the Biden administration to provide immediate emergency asylum for the 63 individuals, as it has done for fleeing Ukrainians and Afghans who face imminent danger from China’s reach.

Since the church left China two years ago, it has received support from rights groups and American officials, including Rashad Hussain, the US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. Freedom Seekers International and ChinaAid have identified six Texas churches that have agreed to support Mayflower church families for a full year after they arrived in the United States.